M38 Hollow Core Scope Project 2016 - Bulldog44

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Thanks Brian and Ted for your input. It is reassuring to hear your thoughts and helps me overcome my worries about making something sub par. Hopefully I will have solid sales news for you really soon! Cheers!

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Update - May 18th.

 

Final bag of screws just arrived yesterday to complete the kit. Sometimes the smallest things are the biggest hurdle. Nothing special, just M2 x 8mm black oxide screws to mount the prism cell. Not accurate to the originals but a good substitute I can afford. The original screws had slotted fillister heads and a spring washer. I have opted not to add a washer to reduce cost and wait time for supplies to arrive. Ebay suppliers in China have not been reliable. 3 orders of screws never arrived so I finally found the same stuff here in Japan but at twice the price. At least it arrived in 2 days from ordering. 

 

I tried hard to find screws that come as close as possible to the originals but there is no perfect match so I do apologize if that part of the kit does not make the grade. I have 3 types of the 3 slotted screws for the M38 but not sure which I will include. The ones I am leaning towards are a dull gray finish but they are closer to the correct head thickness of the original screws. They can be buffed to a shinier finish I think. The first round of kits I sold last year had a shiny nickel finish but they were not exact in detail either.    Oh well.

 

Hoping to have an official sales thread/link up this weekend with kits packaged and ready to go. Those who have already signed up on the interest form will be given priority to buy a kit.  Photos and details outlining the kit to be posted soon. Thanks again for your patience!

[Tee-Kay Fisto[TK]]

 

Waiting eagerly Brian

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[darthcue[TK]]

 

Waiting eagerly Brian

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

me too!!

[Troopacoola[TK]]

Love your scope Brian. For those who may have missed it, here's yours I put on my son's blaster.

Would love to get functioning prisms!

 

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Love your scope Brian. For those who may have missed it, here's yours I put on my son's blaster.

Would love to get functioning prisms!

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Thanks for posting photos of the scope you did. You went the extra mile and it looks great. I wish I could find prisms that work too. Having them made would cost more than the project itself. I am always on the outlook for something though.

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Having trouble with my home PC to post up photos and start the sale thread. I will have to do that tomorrow from another computer. My ipad is quite old and still running ios6 so no hope with this old fossil. <br><br>

Just a not about the lenses I will include with the kit. They are by no means accurate and just an extra I thought to add to make it easy for people instead of searching for stuff. The small lenses are glass domes from ebay and the larger ones are biconvex lenses for google glasses. The ebay seller said they were glass but they are most definitely not, acrylic I believe. So there are some scratches on some so I do apologize these are not perfect. You never know what you get on ebay these days. I do have a limited supply of real glass lenses, again not accurate in thickness to the originals, etc. but nevertheless they are at least real glass. The real lenses I will have to charge a little extra as they were not cheap to buy for these kits. They also do not fit 100% exact so you may still need to modify how to install them, either by sanding the resin parts a bit or using glue if they if those.

[Tee-Kay Fisto[TK]]

I don't think anyone would even notice if the lenses are not perfect as they will be too busy just admiring your scopes

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Sorry for further delay of the sales thread. Not much time to sit down and post up the details and photos.  Packing the kits up is taking more time than I hoped too. I am trying to make sure the parts fit well together and in doing so found a few parts not up to par so I recasted a few more the other night.

 

I have thought hard about pricing with relation to materials, the little extras included, packaging, shipping, time and what sets them apart from other solid resin scopes. My goal is make these affordable for everyone and worth the money you pay without coming up short to reinvest in the project. Hopefully all of this will be reflected in the kit.  (Shipping and Paypal fees are a bit higher than I would like but that is something I cannot control.)

 

 This round of scope making I used a more expensive resin that is already black so this pushed up up my expenses to make them. The cost of shipping for all the screws outweighed the value of the screws themselves. The clear plastic bulb on the M19 is the reason the M19 kit will be a bit more money. It takes the most time to cast these to the quality I was looking for with out a pressure chamber. Almost 3 hours for the casting process and 3 days to wait for the results. Plus the clear resin seems to burn out the silicone molds quicker for some reason. 

 

I have been able to buy a small supply of silver M2 washers that will be included in the kit first few kits. I am still waiting for the black finish ones from ebay. I decided it wasn't that much more to add them.  Just praying the black ones arrive without delay. Also I will be adding a pair of  2BA mounting screws for the kits. I only have about 20 pairs for each scope. These are not listed in the instruction manual. Just an extra. They are not accurate to the originals but thread into the scope feet nicely. 

 

To cap this message off, the scopes are fairly durable as far as resin goes, 100% hollow, very detailed, super lightweight and easy to customize without major work. 

 

Sales thread coming soon, I promise!  

Edited May 23, 2017 by Bulldog44

[darthcue[TK]]

  very very very excited!!!!! 

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Sales thread up and running! Thank you for your patience. My first real sales thread so please forgive any lack of info or mistakes. 

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/41843-bulldog-props-m38-m19-resin-scope-kits/?p=560530

[Tee-Kay Fisto[TK]]

This is like waiting on Christmas. Hurry santa Brian

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bulldog44[TK]]

This is like waiting on Christmas. Hurry santa Brian

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ho, Ho Ho! Sales thread up and running!

[Tee-Kay Fisto[TK]]

Got my form filled in Brian

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Got my form filled in Brian

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

thanks Brian! I will try to process things tomorrow night, business trip all day tomorrow and my ipad is virtually useless using ios6so can't work on the go. I need to get a new ipad.

[Tee-Kay Fisto[TK]]

It's all cool Brian. Am happy to wait until you're sorted.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[darthcue[TK]]

Got my form filled in Brian

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

me too!!!   

[sla73]

Hi Brian,

 

Got the invoice, all paid.. Lots of effort gone into this project!

 

Really looking forward to including this scope in my next build... when I get around to it!

 

Cheers Bryn

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Thanks for all who have purchased a scope kit or two so far.  Hope you all receive them soon.

 

Scope Kit Graveyard:

After a few months of casting parts in the late night hours, I have an overflow of parts that didn't make the grade for the kits. The parts graveyard was piling up so I went through some yesterday and was able to put together some scopes without seeing too many of their faults. I have not decided yet but I may offer these scopes pre-assembled if they turn out okay. Not all the scopes will contain parts such as the prism cell, lens assembly housings,.... basically the internal parts because the defects they have prevent them from being used without major work or fitting together properly. Mostly all these scopes will be glued together and just the outer screws will be used to finish the look. If I get time this week, I will assemble a few, prime coat them & post some photos.

 

Just on a side not regarding casting , it was interesting to discover that the smaller pieces in the kit were also the ones with the most defects. I have learned that you can't cast too many parts at one time so I now pour only 1 to 3 molds at a time to reduce defective casting. Roughly less than 6 grams of resin each time. I burn through lots more cups for mixing but the end results are better when I do little bits at a time. 

 

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Offset Observation:

One thing I have noticed about the M38 scope I am now casting is that when I try to align the mounting plate to the main scope tube, there is a slight offset. The offset is caused by the opening on the scope tube is not perfectly centered. You can see tell by looking at the tube wall thickness. I have mocked up a crude diagram below to sort of show what I am talking about. Due to the offset opening, the mounting plate may not sit level with the main tube. It becomes most apparent when you view the scope from the side.

 

This opening offset on the original scope is exactly the same so there is not much I can do about this. I have another M38 from 1942 that has the offset opening and another M38 scope that is better centered but doesn't have the white lettering top center like most people prefer.

 

Maybe some mild sanding on the inner walls of the tube might help the reduce the offset but this may affect the screws from lining up properly with the holes. 

 

Hoping this does not negatively impact the overall aesthetic of the scope for anyone buying them Please let me know if it does bother you. . I always strive to make these a near perfect as possible but in this case it is just the way the original scope is. Comments welcome and feedback from builders most appreciated!

[darthcue[TK]]

Offset Observation:

One thing I have noticed about the M38 scope I am now casting is that when I try to align the mounting plate to the main scope tube, there is a slight offset. The offset is caused by the opening on the scope tube is not perfectly centered. You can see tell by looking at the tube wall thickness. I have mocked up a crude diagram below to sort of show what I am talking about. Due to the offset opening, the mounting plate may not sit level with the main tube. It becomes most apparent when you view the scope from the side.

 

This opening offset on the original scope is exactly the same so there is not much I can do about this. I have another M38 from 1942 that has the offset opening and another M38 scope that is better centered but doesn't have the white lettering top center like most people prefer.

 

Maybe some mild sanding on the inner walls of the tube might help the reduce the offset but this may affect the screws from lining up properly with the holes. 

 

Hoping this does not negatively impact the overall aesthetic of the scope for anyone buying them Please let me know if it does bother you. . I always strive to make these a near perfect as possible but in this case it is just the way the original scope is. Comments welcome and feedback from builders most appreciated!

i don't mind the offset if it is the way the original is.... 

Edited June 2, 2017 by darthcue

[Bulldog44[TK]]

The original is definitely offset but the castings show the offset a tiny bit more. Lots of variables make it difficult to get it perfect, the silicone does shrink a tiny bit and can cause the parts to be slightly disproportionate . I might be being overly critical of this but I thought its important to share . I test fit all the kit parts before packing them and get th best parts that fit for each scope tube . Just hope everyone will be pleased with their scopes. If not I am ready to find a positive outcome.

[Bulldog44[TK]]

 

Just thought to post this and hear thoughts on why this black stuff was used or maybe it is just dirt build up. Seems to me like a sealant or screw lock to prevent tampering. 

For finishing the scope kit, this may be one way to detail the scope  but I want to make sure this actually the case with other original scopes. Any thoughts?

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Sorry double posted previous post. Will edit this later.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Bulldog44

[sla73]

Bloody hell Brian, I just got my M38 scope in the mail from you and it is AMAZING!!!

 

I have a feeling that I may need to get another one from you just to keep one in the box as it is.. (def a collectors item as it is in the box)

 

Extremely impressed on this whole package - the casting quality, packaging, instructions (WOW) - Unbelievable stuff mate!

 

Cheers Bryn